The Christmas she desperately needed
by DragonFireWitch
Summary: Hermione hates this time of year. One person knows exactly what she needs and is able to give her exactly that after they promised no gifts. Rated T for suggestive adult themes.


**A/N I apologize for not updating my WIPs Healing or Healing through Nightmares. It's been extremely crazy here and we're moving as well. I am hoping to get them out soon and thank you for holding on. My mind is also elsewhere as I handle some emotional stuff but I'm hoping by doing this short one shot, I can get back on track.**

 **Thanks! Hope you enjoy this.**

Hermione hadn't always hated this holiday. In fact, she used to love this holiday. Surrounded by loved ones, her mother in the kitchen making treacle pie and sausage rolls while she and her dad tried to sneak the treats out of the kitchen. Always failing. Christmas carols at the piano where her dad played and sang off-key. The bang of the Christmas Crackers ringing in her ears. Yes, this holiday used to be filled with heartwarming memories.

Now her parents resided in Australia, unaware of the twenty-five-year-old daughter they had currently residing in their old home because she had been unable to reverse the memory charm. Her friendships strained with her second family as they hold onto the hope of her getting back with Ronald after six years. That Christmas had been an absolute disaster.

" _Happy Christmas Hermione!", her boyfriend of seven months exclaimed._

 _Smiling back, though it never reached her eyes, she stood to hug and kiss Ron. "Happy Christmas Ron. I hope you slept well."_

" _You could at least pretend you're happy to see me." Ron glowered._

 _Taken aback, Hermione hadn't known what to say, so she stared back at him, her lips slightly parted with a confused look on her face._

" _It's bloody obvious you'd rather be elsewhere." He sneered at her._

" _Maybe not elsewhere, but I do wish my parents were here."_

" _Why? Is my family not good enough for you?" Ron huffed at her and walked away._

The rest of the day they had fought continuously. She was allowed to miss her parents. He felt she should be grateful his family treated her like she was apart of their family, which she was grateful for, but there are just times you wish you had your own parents. For which she was glad her current boyfriend understood.

Ah yes, her current boyfriend. This would be their first Christmas together. They had made things official on New Years at the Potters annual New Year's Eve party. She had a choice of kissing Ron or Draco Malfoy as they were the only singles at the party.

Over the last couple years, she had gotten to know Draco. They found themselves at the same convention in Italy. Having only known each other, they went out for coffee, talking about why they were currently attending the convention, which of course led to many other topics. By the end of their week-long stay, they had been out for various meals multiple times getting to know each other as mature adults.

When they arrived back in London, Hermione assumed Draco would go back to completely ignoring her existence. That was until she received his first owl asking her for coffee the following week. Every week thereafter, they met on a Saturday morning and vented about their long week over breakfast, quickly becoming friends.

So when Hermione was faced with being alone at midnight or kissing Ron or Draco, she formulated a plan to get Draco under a mistletoe. She knew she had feelings for him, but she figured he only viewed her as a friend, which she was fine with of course, but that didn't mean she wanted to be surrounded by the many couples kissing when the clock chimed the new year.

" _Thirty seconds to midnight everyone! Get ready!" Ginny bellowed holding onto Harry._

Hermione threw her plan into action and pretended to trip into Draco, who stumbled backward and right under the mistletoe she planted.

" _Oh drat! We're under a mistletoe." Hermione announced with a fake pout._

 _With a knowing look that made Hermione's cheeks burn red, Draco smirked and said, "Oh what a pity. I wonder how that got there as it hasn't been there all night. Looks like I'm your kissing partner tonight Granger."_

 _With a shy smile, keeping his eyes locked with hers, they joined in on the countdown._

10…

 _9…_

 _8…_

 _7…_

 _6…_

 _5…_

 _4…_

 _3…_

 _2…_

 _1!_

" _HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Shouts could be heard from everyone around as couples embraced in liplocks. Draco grinned and grabbed Hermione forcibly by the hips pulling her in for a heated kiss._

The rest, as they say, was history.

Glancing at the clock, Hermione realized he'd be arriving shortly. They had agreed on no presents as neither enjoyed the holiday much and he had been called away on business for most of December. They planned to watch Christmas movies cuddling in bed. There really was no point in being anywhere else as the movies probably would just be background noise anyway.

She heard the floo ignite and glanced up to see her boyfriend removing soot from his clothes.

"Hey there beautiful. I know we said no gifts, and before you say anything, no I didn't buy anything for you, but if you'd like to get out of your jammies quick, I'd like to take you somewhere before we get all nice and cozy."

"I thought we agreed on a jammie day?"

Giving her a sly grin, he looked her up and down before he spoke. "Actually we agreed clothes were optional, but seeing as we bothered with it, I figure I could take you out for a bit. Now, go, put something classy on."

Looking him over curiously, she got up slowly and went to her bedroom putting on a two-tone satin dress. The bottom half, which was knee length, looked like a black skirt. While the sheer top was a scooped neckline, with long sleeves, covered in lace that resembled snowflakes. Topping it off with short black heels. Finding it pointless to do anything with her hair as it would be covered with a winter hat, she walked out to Draco who gave her a wolf whistle.

"Merlin Hermione. If I didn't really want to take you out, I'd be pushing you back into that bedroom and showing you exactly what that dress does to me."

Giggling she walked over and kissed him on the cheek promising she had a gift just for him in the bedroom. With a groan, he took her hand and held up a coin for her to grab hold of. Before she could ask any questions, they were spinning through space.

Grabbing ahold of Draco to help her steady herself, she looked at her surroundings. Where once it was daylight, it was currently dark. Where once she was standing in her living room, she was currently standing outside 'Uniting Church'.

Raising an eyebrow at Draco, he took her hand with a smile and pulled her forward before she had a chance to ask where they were.

"Draco where are we?" She finally managed to get out when he stopped.

"Your Christmas present." He said with a wide smile "You've told me of your Christmas pasts. The joy you had as a child and the love you had for this holiday, and how much you dislike it now. I wanted to change that. We've almost been together a year, and yet I've known you since I was eleven. You are it for me, Hermione."

Hermione was shocked, with tears pooling in her eyes; unsure of how she felt. She loved him, but Christmas wasn't the holiday she ever hoped this would happen on. Before she could stop him, he continued.

"But I can't start a future with you just yet. I had to do this right. You've not liked Christmas for seven years. The year you obliviated your parents. In order to do this right, I had to get their blessing, and there was only one way to do that. I wasn't on a business trip Hermione." He paused turning towards the people coming out of the church.

Hermione followed his gaze. She was staring into the eyes of her parents, who were running towards her with open arms saying her name. The tears flowing freely from her eyes as her parents dragged her to the ground in a hug.

There were mumbles of words coming from each of the Grangers. After a short time had passed, they stood and hugged properly. Her father extending his hand out to Draco, greeting him for the first time that day.

"Thank you for bringing her back to us." Her father told him.

Hermione wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up at Draco. "Thank you so much! But, how? I couldn't reverse it six years ago?"

"Unfortunately, it would have never worked. I paid a copious amount of Galleons to try over the last few months. When it all failed, I came to them personally at the beginning of the month. I know what I did might be unforgivable, but I got some of your memories using Legilimency when you spoke of your memories. I put the memories I was able to get from you into a vial. When I came to talk to your parents they told me they felt a piece of them was missing. I told them about you and what you had done to protect them. Then I showed them the memories using a pensieve I was able to borrow from the minister here. I told them why I was here and showed them some of our memories. They don't remember anything, but they know what's important. That you are their daughter and that they love you. It's up to you to show them the rest."

Tears kept streaming down her face as she threw her arms around his neck streaming an incoherent amount of words. He held her, rubbing circles on her back, smiling wide knowing their future could start. Once she had controlled herself, she looked at her parents whose eyes were also wet.

"Oh!" Hermione gasped suddenly realizing why he had come to them in the first place. "Wasn't there something you wanted to ask me Draco?"

"No. Not today. Today is about your family and love. Happy Christmas Hermione."

"Happy Christmas Draco. This is the best Christmas I've ever had."

He didn't ask her that day. He waited until midnight six days later. Their one year anniversary.


End file.
